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iTACITUS - Intelligent Tourism and Cultural Information through Ubiquitous Services |
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Itacitus is a European research project funded under the Sixth Framework Programme for information society technologies. iTacitus aims explore ways in which information technology can be employed to encourage cultural tourism. 
Augmented reality.
Cultural heritage sites have huge amounts of information. However it can be difficult to present this information in a compelling way. iTacitus will explore ways of using augmented reality to provide compelling experiences at cultural heritage sites. For example
- Superimposed Environments: 3D objects are placed into the scene on the spot in order to overlay the real scene. Like missing paintings, statues or architecture models.
- Annotated Landscape: Abstract context sensitive information overlays showing images, texts and videos about a certain spot.
- Spatial Acoustic Overlays: Transporting a place's original ambience by virtually placing spatial audio clips in the surroundings.
Itinerary planning
Being a tourist can sometimes be hard work. With a huge choice of things to do it can be challenging even deciding what you want to do even before you consider practical problems like transport, costs and opening times. iTacitus aims to develop an interactive itinerary planning tool where the process is enjoyable rather than overwhelming since mundane issues like travel and finding things which match your interests are handled by the system automatically. In this way we hope to encourage tourists to explore more and visit attractions which are off the beaten track.
Contextual information.
Have you ever had time to fill wanted to find out what there is to do within 20 minutes of your location?
Have you ever you passed a ruin and wondered what it looked like when it was in use, who used the building, did anything of significance happen there?
iTACITUS wishes to capitalise on this curiosity to ensure that the person has access to that information there and then, so that they get the required information before the flicker of curiosity goes out. We aim to explore ways of delivering contextual information (users location, interests and history) to the visitors mobile device. 
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IGD submitted a paper to the VAST2008 conference in Braga, Portugal in December ( http://www.vast2008.org ).The paper has been accepted.
The paper title is "Reality Filtering: A Visual Time Machine in Augmented Reality". Here is an abstract of the paper:
We present Reality Filtering, an application that makes it possible to visualize original content like drawings or paintings of buildings and frescos seamlessly superimposed on reality by using filtered augmented reality. This enables simple and inexpensive applications in the cultural heritage and architecture area.
The main idea is that the video stream showing the reality is filtered on the fly to acquire the same presentation style as the virtual objects.
This allows for a better integration of original historic content and creates the impression of a virtual time journey.
The registration of the virtual objects in the video images is provided by a robust 6DOF tracking framework based on two technologies that work in tandem: an initialization step based on Randomized Trees and a frame-to-frame tracking phase based on KLT. For the initialization, we present the novel concept of temporally distributed computational load (TDCL), which is able to automatically detect and register multiple objects while maintaining a constant video frame rate of 20 frames / sec.
For mid- to long-range augmentation a pure 2-dimensional tracking with 3DOF is applicable and leads to significant performance gain. The entire application runs in real time on Ultra Mobile PCs. |
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A paper related to the iTACITUS project has been presented by Michael Zoellner during the Stockholm eChallenges conference 23rd of October 2008. The title of the paper is "Encouraging Cultural Exploration: a Dynamic Tour Guide based on Personalised Contextual Information and Ad-hoc Planning" and the authors are: Jonah DEARLOVE, Maurizio MEGLIOLA, Silvana TOFFOLO, Michael ZOELLNER.
Download the paper
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Fraunhofer IGD showed an iTACITUS-based application in cooperation with Rome Reborn at SIGGRAPH 2008 in Los Angeles. The mobile application overlayed 3D models of roman monuments on floor-maps and posters at the booth in real time.  
See a video of the installation at Youtube!
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TXT presented a paper about the Progress Module used in iTacitus at the “EVA 2008" conference in Wien, Austria on Tuesday , 26 August 2008. The title of the paper is "Integrating Agent and Wireless Technologies for Location-based Services in Cultural Heritage", authors are Maurizio Megliola and Luca Barbieri. Download the paper
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We will be presenting iTacitus at “The Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism” and centralised EU financial instruments supporting tourism in Portorož, Slovenia on Tuesday, 10 June 2008. |
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